Bust out your kilts, lads and lassies!  It’s time for the annual Braemar Gathering — i.e., the only time of the year we can see photos of royals watching potato sack races!  Hooray! :)

And, OMG, how elegant does Princess Anne look?!?  Turning sixty seriously suits her — the hat is so Ingrid Bergman in Casablanca!  Amazing!  Love the dark hat with the blue dress — if only we could wrestle those sunnies (I think they’re the Olympic plastic things again) away from her, we’d really be set!

Sidenote, though: do you think Prince Charles knows that his saxophone has disappeared?

PHOTO CREDITS: REUTERS/Russell Cheyne

Repeat.  I’m getting quite tired of this one — time for a new hat suitable for military occasions.  Anne does look quite happy though, doesn’t she?

PHOTO CREDITS: Bruce Adams-WPA Pool/Getty Images

I’m sure all you keen-eyed hatters immediately recognized Anne’s fanciest outfit from its last outing during Royal Ascot ’09 — here she’s wearing it at a special Buck House Garden Party thrown to celebrate her 60th birthday (which isn’t until August — what is with the Windsor women celebrating their birthdays more than once, hm?).

What I don’t remember, however, are the navy blue gloves.  Pardon my French, darlings, but WTF are those???  Why not get some minty green gloves and go monochrome — then she could have looked chic and still avoided those sweaty nervous palms!

Thanks to lovely readers James and Sally for sending in info about this event!

Oh, what a mess — I can’t decide if this one’s a cabbage flower or a cream puff.  These big, frilly hats just don’t do anything for Annie — she’s a modern lady who needs something structural, I think!

Also, I think it might be partly the gloves that are aging her … I haven’t noticed anyone but her and Queen Liz wearing them (though Sophie was holding a pair the other day).

HRH The Prince of Wales and Mrs. Camilla Parker Bowles
April 9, 2005

We’ve reached the finish line, kids: it’s our last hattery flashback post for the month!  Which also means that Crown Princess Victoria’s wedding is only three days away — hooray!!!

Our most recent crown princely wedding in Europe was also easily the most controversial: in 2005, Prince Charles married his longtime partner, Camilla Parker Bowles, with whom he had admitted committing adultery during his marriage to Diana, Princess of Wales.  Both parties were divorced (though Charles, in the wake of Diana’s death, was considered a widower), and so a religious wedding in the Church of England was impossible. 

However, it had become clear by 2005 that Camilla’s place in Charles’s life was non-negotiable, and so the Queen and the Archbishop of Canterbury decided that marriage was the best option.  The solution?  A civil wedding ceremony at the Guildhall in Windsor, followed by a Church of England blessing at St. George’s Chapel on the grounds of Windsor Castle.  There was one more unforeseen obstacle to overcome, however: the wedding had to be postponed by one day when Pope John Paul II died, and Charles had to represent the Queen at his funeral.

But on the day of the wedding itself, things went off largely without a hitch.  Camilla went from being Mrs. Parker Bowles to being HRH The Duchess of Cornwall (she doesn’t use the Princess of Wales title because of lingering associations with Diana).  All of Charles and Camilla’s children were present for the celebration, as were all of the senior royals — and Camilla’s ex-husband, too!  The two celebrated their fifth wedding anniversary this year.

(For those hoping this wedding hattery flashback might be about Charles and Diana’s wedding, never fear: I’m planning to do a flashback post about that event in the future!)

Wedding Hatters

Great Britain
Elizabeth · Camilla · Beatrice · Eugenie · Sophie · Anne · Zara
Serena · Sarah · Birgitte · Katharine · Alexandra · Marie-Christine

Foreign Royals
Anne-Marie · Mette-Marit · Laurentien

Oh, how far the mighty hatter of yesterday has fallen … what the heck is this, Anne?  The fuschia is lovely on her, but the rest … oh, Lord.  Piling one’s hair all up on the top of one’s head and then plopping a couple of random flowers in the middle of the whole mess does not a good hattery experience make!  See here:

Shudder.  It’s just so bad!

(Also, yes, no need to adjust your computer monitor — those are indeed plastic Olympics sunglasses.  Oh, Zara, where art thou?  Your help is needed here!)

God help me, but I think I like Annie’s Ascot hat today!  I don’t know if it’s actually new, but it’s new to the blog.  She’s doing a good job here of balancing casual and fancy — hats that are too frou-frou just look silly on Anne, but Ascot’s an occasion where you really need to step it up!  I like the contrasting crown and brim, and the green is a nice color on her.  Good show, ma’am!

Hate the skirt, though.

(Also, PS, looks like Prince Charles’s chest infection means no Camilla at Ascot this week!  I weep for the lost hattery opportunities…)

Annie sure looks like she’s in a good mood today, doesn’t she?  And she’s paired some major rocks with her Garter hat, just like her mum — check out these earrings!

Also, I haven’t found photographic proof yet, but I fear the person in the mint outfit may be Birgitte Gloucester, recycling a green outfit she’s worn a million times again.  Oyyyyyyy!

Go ahead: Princess Anne dares you to make fun of her big red feather.  She dares you to do it!

Lovely reader Maggie sent in this photo and wondered what in the world Zara might be gesturing about.  I have absolutely no clue, but I do know this: Anne’s got her old-timey gangster hat on again!  It reminds me of that episode of I Love Lucy when Ricky thinks Lucy’s a kleptomaniac.  Perhaps everyone at Badminton should keep an eye on their valuables?